2022-11-07 Reconcile Your Unconscious Beliefs

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” — Carl Gustav Jung

When was the last time you paid attention to your thoughts? I mean, really noticed your thoughts without judgement? Here’s the thing: most people are oblivious to their thoughts because it is like a crowded freeway in their mind, where drivers are asleep at the wheel. This is what many people experience with their thoughts.

The noise is overwhelming, so they ignore their thoughts. However, this is a problem because if we are unaware of our thoughts, how can we trust what we think, let alone trust ourselves to communicate truthfully?

Your conscious thoughts are the artefacts of your unconscious beliefs. Let me explain what I mean. Thoughts are the storehouses of the unconscious mind and they define reality as you believe it to be. However, they are subjective, meaning what you believe about the world differs from others.

As the French-born novelist Anaïs Nin said: “We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” Meaning, your observations are based on your perceptions. In other words, you create a mental model of the world through your conditioning and project it outwardly.

To use a simple analogy: Your unconscious beliefs can be likened to a musician playing an electric guitar, whereby the amplifier is the projection for the sound. The musician represents our unconscious mind, and the amplifier is the conscious mind. It can only project what the guitarist plays, not change the music.

Put simply, no matter how hard you try to change your conscious thoughts, it is futile until you reconcile your unconscious beliefs. It is because the unconscious represents your accumulated thoughts, beliefs, and experiences from childhood.

It is the storeroom for experienced trauma and the canvas upon which you perceive life. For example, if you had a tough childhood, you may have created a belief the world is not safe. Moreover, life is unfair, and it is difficult to express oneself because you are never heard.